E99 Build-up (UW Mitch Build Thread)

Not sure if this is cool enough for the Project Forum, hopefully it is, but if not maybe a moderator could move to the appropriate section. I've really enjoyed seeing and reading through folks' build threads, so I figured I'd share mine.

Bought this truck in 2010 with 194k miles on the clock. It was pretty much stock except some cosmetic stuff - billet grill, badge delete, rims/tires. I added on a Donaldson AIS pretty much immediately, then a DP Tuner F6 & ISSPRO EV2 gauges (Scott Boyer formerly RPM Northwest installed the gauges).

That was good and fine for a while. I used to work at a stereo shop in highschool (Island Sound in Hawaii for you locals who remember them). So that's where I'll start this build thread's pictures. Back in Feb 2012 I did the front doors and floors.

Photos are as follows:

1. Door panel removed
2. Plastic sheeting removed, you can see the large access hole
3. Speaker hole
4. Sheet metal over the access hole
5. Generic accoustic mat (I think I used RAAMat or something like that)

So in highschool since I worked at a stereo shop, for one of my science classes I did a before/after experiment of dynamatting and foaming the head liner on my 4Runner. Made a huge difference on road noise and my max SPL went up 3dB. So I did a little research on the latest and greatest since it'd be 15 years since I did it. Basically the difference now seemed to be slightly less use of matting, matting is now less expensive (Dynamat brand isn't the only game in town) and use of sticky backed acoustic foam is more prevalent.

With the doors I sheet metaled the access hole, applied the matting, then acoustic foam sheet over.

On the back wall, it's was pretty straightforward. Matting + foam sheeting.

For the floors, I basically did what I could get by peeling back the carpet liner without actually pulling the whole carpet out. Since I'm not building this as a competition stereo vehicle, just wanting to reduce some road noise, I figured that'd be good enough. Between the matting and inserting silicone tubing in the door seals, I was pretty happy with the noise reduction. Riding in a Lexus this is not, but now I can mostly hear my wife when we're on the freeway at 70mph.

With the sound deadening / sound barrier in, it was a basic "deck and speakers" install. Added a little self contained powered sub under the rear seat. I really looked hard at trying to build something custom either into the center console, under the rear seat or behind it, but when it came down to it, I reminded myself my BOOM days were gone

Photos:

1. Deck before - stock, you've seen 'em in your own truck
2. Deck after - simple little Sony I got from Crutchfield - you've probably seem this too.

Perhaps of slight interest also is you can see where I installed the DP Tuner switch in Jody's flush mount kit. I really like this location for it.

About 2 years ago, in the summer after I installed the stereo, and a little less than 2 years after getting the truck, I took a rifle class from OTS-NW. That's where I met Wes Tuttle of DFI Performance...and that's kind of where the scope of most of what I was comfortable to do myself ends and the real build starts.

At the time I was more or less happy with the performance of my E99 with just the chip, and I knew that it would be a potential black hole of money to start upgrading...trans, injectors, turbo conversion away from the E99 set-up...so kept his card for a later date.

BTW, ringing steel targets at 1000 yards is AWESOME! I need to get back to shooting like that again.

Looking good!

Thanks Lysons!

Continuing on...so a while after I met Wes, I was taking my truck in to the nearby Midas for some brake work. As it turns out, brakes don't work so well when a pad get so worn that it falls out...but that's a different story. So while the Midas guys have my truck on the lift they notice the yoke on the transfer case has some play in it. They want what I thought was pretty stupid money for the job, so I called Wes to see if it's something he could/wanted to do. Indeed yes...so that was either my first mistake or the best thing ever.

While I was having my transfer case done, I asked about some replacement shocks. He got me fixed up with Fox's - turns out one of my shocks was completely dead - what could I expect with a 14 year old truck.

Also while I'm there I poke just a little bit at what kind of performance goodies he'd recommend for a ~400HP build. He piqued my interest by telling me he was working on a T4 kit of his own!

Of course like a good trusted adviser he said supporting mods first. So the first most obvious one for a 4R100 is whose trans? BTS? John Wood? Other? I ended up going with a Trans+Medic trans from Cory in Gresham, OR for multiple reasons - Wes runs Cory's trans in his truck, the price was very reasonable, and mainly Cory is local and in talking to him about the goals for my truck, he said it'd be no problem, and IF I were to run into a problem I could have my truck taken in, instead of being dead on the side of the road and needing to have someone ship my trans somewhere.

Photos:
1. Trans+Medic shop in Gresham OR
2. They build their transmissions using Precision of New Hampton torque converters
3. Another shot of the converter
4. Cory usually has a 4R100 built and on the shelf for quick turn around installs
5. Another shot of the trans

If course the simultaneous important thing was to get new tunes from Jody to accommodate the different valve body, which is a TransGo Tugger.

So with trans done, I figured I would sit tight, and do injectors and hpop at the same time as the T4 kit. But that was not quite how it has worked out, but that's okay, having a staged build-up is actually kind of nice because I've been able to dyno in Wes' shop at each stage of the build.

More later...

~Mitch

Due to many factors Wes' kits were delayed and delayed. But he was getting close. So I figured next up would be injectors and HPOP. So I did some research here on PSA. Since I like Jody's F6 and the tunes I have, I narrowed down to picking from folks he used.

Goal - 400HP

• This truck is my daily driver and I have a young child. I DO NOT want to be stranded.
• I wanted more get up and go

Injectors - PIS 160cc/30% from Tim via Jody

Reasoning for this was multifold. Tim posts a lot here, seems knowledgeable and has stated multiple times that while he doesn't have some kind of "unlimited warranty" he stands behind his work. The price was decent, and it was going to be able to make right around my goal of 400HP.

HPOP - Terminator T500 from Joey via Jody

This one was kind of easy - it's what Jody carries/recommends, it will be enough for the 160/30's with room to spare down the road and will be a huge improvement from the stock 15* pump on my truck with ~240k miles on it.

I was particularly happy with how quickly Joey got me the pump, and how quickly he inspected my core and pushed the refund though with Diane.

So now for some eye candy - 5 shots of the T500.

Shots of the injectors.

Being that Wes has a dyno at his shop, when I came in, we did a dyno to get some "before" numbers with just the F6 and Jody's tunes.

Tune - HP/Torque
Modified Stock - 219 / 494
+80 Econo - 247 / 560
+120 Race - 235 / 530

It was interesting to see that in +120 Race I was actually making less peak torque and HP than in Econo since on the road, the Race tune feels faster (probably the shape of the torque/HP curves and the shifting has a lot to do with it)

Some photos are here from install day. While Wes was in there he found a small crack in one of the injector cups - driver side near firewall...what a bitch - so that was replaced while everything was apart.

Once everything came back together, he said it would take some driving, starting and stopping to work all the air out of the high pressure oil system, so we shouldn't redyno for at least a week. The butt dyno told me I was very happy.

After just a couple weeks I was driving home from picking up my father in law at train station. Coming up a slight incline the truck started bucking like crazy. The only thing that would smooth it out was downshifting and running around 2500 rpm. It was a holiday weekend, but I called Wes. He said if I could limp it home, to get it home then have it towed to his shop. It was really great of him to come into the shop on a holiday to figure out what was wrong.

He was able to diagnose that Injector #8 wasn't firing. Luckily Wes builds injectors too, so he has all the tools and knowledge to know what he's looking at. Turns one dowel pin in injector #8 was totally sheered and the other 2 bent. He also noticed some damage on the injector cap, but was able to replace the pins, replace the cap and get the injector going again.

For the number of injectors Tim builds I'm chalking it up to sh!t happens, but it's how a business owner handles it that matters to me.

Tim got me a replacement injector in the mail quickly, but it's still sitting in the box until I have a chance to go back to Wes to have it installed. I'm still out a couple hundred bucks of labor for the injector that went south, so I'm hoping that in the end Tim or Jody make it right, since it wasn't my fault an internal piece of the injector failed. But we'll see.

After driving a couple months, I was able to get back in re-dyno now with updated tunes for the HPOP and injectors.

Tune - HP / Torque
Modified Stock - 273 / 532
+80 Econo - 311 / 640
+120 Race - 311 / 650

And this is with stock E99 turbo, intake manifold and exhaust. I'm hoping that when I get in Wes' T4 kit with the Pius (Bell Turbo) LASB (modified S366) that the engine will breathe a lot better and I'll hit my goal of 400HP.

uw mitch said:

Shots of the injectors.

Click to expand...

nice

Glad you like the injector photos!

Since I'm converting the E99 set-up to T4 I needed new intake tins. One option was to just fine 99.5 or later intake tins. Another option was Jake's. But having bought a couple items from Clay at Riffraff over the last year, and seeing from the pictures how nice they were, I went with his. Of course, Clay is ridiculous, and even if I order in the afternoon, seems to be able process, pack and get things on the UPS truck on the same day.

These aren't installed yet, but I took some photos for "eye candy". These intake manifolds really are truly an amazing piece of machining. Seems like every detail has been attended to.

Nice, I want to dynomat my OBS, do the whole cab. I can't wait since the OBS is so loud


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powerjoke4life said:

Nice, I want to dynomat my OBS, do the whole cab. I can't wait since the OBS is so loud


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Click to expand...

There was a thread I read on sound deadening. It said for non-competition cars, the best cost/work to result ratio was something like just covering 40% of the surface with mass loading (aka Dynamat) and the whole thing with acoustic foam. You can also stuff the headliner with airconditioning duct foam (closed cell foam) - which is what I did with awesome results on my 4Runner in highschool.

~Mitch

I have vinal seats and floor in mine right now. I will be changing that out for carpet and super duty leather seats. Anything that is exposed at that time will be covered plus the doors. I'm not sure if I will go through the hassle of pulling the dash but most everything else will be done.


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Spent most of the day at DFI Performance today A LOT of great work got done. I have a ton of pictures, but this one says the most for me...out with the old.

~Mitch

Yesterday was a second long day at DFI Performance. Wes actually got in early and started working on the truck before I got there. We got the T4 kit finished, installed a Snow MAX-MPG and changed me over from green coolant to red ELC coolant, engine oil change and front and rear diffs too since it was time.

Some engine bay porn below.

Before - basically stock E99 set-up with just a Donaldson AIS and Sinister coolant filter.

After - DFI Performance T4 kit installed. I think I'm the first customer to get one on, and the first automatic since Wes and Dan's trucks are ZF6.

Full review of what got installed later, but for now I'll just say the ass-dyno says it's pretty happy with the improvements

~Mitch

Impressions so far:

--Snow Water/Meth didn't "self-prime" from coming on, it required a manual prime to get going. Also in talking to Snow, they have new nozzles with check valves in them to prevent drain back, so I ordered some of those.

--In DP-Tuner/Jody's +120 Race tune, it's freaking awesome. Pulls a lot harder on the top end in 0-65mph pulls.

--At idle, 4" Diamond Eye (turbo back w/ muffler/resonator) sounds deeper/throatier

--On the road there's MUCH more turbo whistle with the Bell LASB and S&B open air element. I'm planning on hacking up my AIS box to "enclose" the S&B filter in hopes of muffling the whistle some.

--Send Injector #8 (the one Wes fixed) back to Tim with the broken injector pins in hopes that he'll be refunding the cost of labor on switch out.

Very happy with the install overall and the way all the parts are interacting. I'll hopefully have some time for dyno pulls in the next month or so. I don't have hands on experience with other T4 conversion kits, but the DFI Performance kit that Wes installed was very nice and is working great!

~Mitch

Nice build.

Have you had your tunes adjusted for the new parts you added?

How much smoke are you seeing from the exhaust in the various tunes & stock?

We plan to have new injectors installed in an Excursion and F250. I'm interested in to hear how the injector issue is handled. Please keep us informed.

Chuck

Hi Chuck,

Thanks for the compliment. The nice thing about buying the injectors and HPOP through Jody was that he included updating all my tunes with the cost of the stuff I purchased through him. So back in Feb when I had the injectors and HPOP ordered, he emailed me new tunes for my F6 that accounted for the injectors (single shots not split shot like the AB's), HPOP although not considered "big oil" and the modded S366 turbo. The nice thing about the F6 is I drove my truck to Wes' shop, while Wes was doing the engine work, I was able to load the new tunes from my laptop (technically a "netbook").

I've never had much smoke from Jody's tunes in either stock, +80Econo or +120Race. I haven't tried the+140Extreme, but I do have a trial tune of that.

I'm very happy with Jody's tunes and Tim's injectors (once the broken one was fixed) however I am a little unsure about their after sales support, since neither has come out and said "don't worry Mitch, sh!t happens, but we're going to make sure you're taken care of". We'll see how it pans out as the injector that Wes fixed, along with the broken/damaged pins is enroute to Tim for inspection.

~Mitch